US Beat Canada to Take Women’s Ice Hockey Gold for First Time Since 1998

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GANGNEUNG, SOUTH KOREA - FEBRUARY 22: Gold medal winners the United States celebrate after defeating Canada in a shootout in the Women's Gold Medal Game on day thirteen of the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympic Games at Gangneung Hockey Centre on February 22, 2018 in Gangneung, South Korea. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)

US Beat Canada to Take Women’s Ice Hockey Gold for First Time Since 1998

GANGNEUNG, SOUTH KOREA - FEBRUARY 22: Gold medal winners the United States celebrate after defeating Canada in a shootout in the Women's Gold Medal Game on day thirteen of the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympic Games at Gangneung Hockey Centre on February 22, 2018 in Gangneung, South Korea. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)

After an absolute nail-biter of a match, which went to overtime and then a penalty shootout, the US has finally broken Canada’s stranglehold on women’s Olympic hockey.

Team USA won the shootout 3-2, with forward Jocelyne Lamoureux-Davidson scoring the winning goal. The women in blue poured onto the ice after Canada’s Megan Agosta couldn’t reply, handing the Americans the gold.

It was an incredibly close match throughout, with Canada leading 2-1 well into the third period, only for Team USA’s Monique Lamoureux-Morando to pull it back, pushing the game into overtime.

Lamoureux-Morando told reporters after the game that she was “digging the new necklace.”

She said she had worked on the penalty shot a “thousand times” which won the match.

“I’ve done that thousands of times around tires just set out on open ice,” she said. “It’s called ‘Oops, I did it again’ … I’ve butchered it a thousand times, ran into tires, tripped over tires. I’m just glad it worked out this time.”

The US Women’s Hockey team hadn’t won gold since the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan, so tensions were even higher than usual against their regional rivals.

Pay battle

Most of the women on the team said they had to work one or two other jobs in addition to training and competing because they were making so little from being on the national team.

Hilary Knight from Team USA said a movie should be made about team, and its gold medal shootout.

“We had all the drama and everything,” she said. “This is an outstanding team. I think I’m sort of bittersweet right now that the journey is over just because these women are incredible … It’s a dream come true.”

It was a hard won victory, with the athletes boycotting the International Ice Hockey Federation World Championship and USA Hockey threatening to bring in scabs.

They drew support from players’ associations for the NFL, NBA, WNBA, MLB and the NHL, and finally, in March 2017, reached an agreement for parity with the men’s team, though the exact details have not been released.